Antrel Rolle Talks Sports Gambling, Jalen Ramsey, Giants, Cardinals and Miami
Sports gambling didn’t cross the mind of Antrel Rolle during his 11-year NFL career, but it’s a different world now.
NBA player Malik Beasley and MLB player Luis Ortiz are both currently under investigation for potential gambling-related infractions, and Rolle said an NFL scandal could happen next.
The three-time Pro Bowler also talked about Jalen Ramsey’s potential move to safety, the Arizona Cardinals, New York Giants, Miami Hurricanes and much more in this exclusive Q&A with Gambling Industry News.
Q: In the NBA and MLB, players are being investigated for potentially being involved in sports gambling. Do you think it will eventually hit the NFL?
Antrel Rolle: “I’m not a huge gambling guy myself, so if it was me, no. But realistically, that’s something you’re going to have to worry about. Money rules the world, right? Everyone loves money, and money is the root of all evil. If this person gets five or six catches, and I have an inkling that I can do that, would I not place a $100,000 bet that this will take place? Morally and ethically, it’s wrong. I hope that it doesn’t, because the game is already watered down, and that would put a huge negative stamp on the game. So let’s hope and pray it doesn’t get to that point.”
Q: When you were playing, was sports betting in your purview? There has always been talk about favorites and underdogs, but not to this extent.
Antrel Rolle: “I’ll be 100% honest with you. I don’t think it ever crossed my mind in my 11 years of playing. Underdogs, as far as who is expected to win, that’s one thing, and that barely even crossed my mind. But as far as point spreads? That never honestly crossed my mind in 11 years.”
Q: Jalen Ramsey has been a great corner, and now there are questions if he should move to safety or play the slot. You had great success moving from cornerback to safety, so what do you think is the best spot for Jalen at this point in his career?
Antrel Rolle: “Jalen is a unique talent. I’ve always felt like he could be your Swiss army knife type of guy. You can play him in the slot, you can play him at corner, play him at safety, in dime. And he’s aggressive enough that he can get all those jobs done extremely well. He reminds me of Charles Woodson, with the body stature, the coverage ability, and they’re not afraid to go in there and get their hands dirty. Most importantly, he has that competitive dog in him. Corner is a different type of dog, safety is a different type of dog.
“To be a hybrid player, it takes a different mental capacity, as far as understanding the playbook, understanding what the front is doing, what the linebackers are doing, et cetera. That’s the part people don’t understand – when you move from that island to the box, or back at safety, you have to be aware of what everyone on that defense is doing.”
Q: You mentioned Jalen being aggressive and physical. What advice do you have for him if he does move to safety this season?
Antrel Rolle: “The first piece of advice is to always work the craft that you had before. Still work on that corner craft, because it’s going to make you that much better as a player, that much more versatile. When I made the transition to safety, yeah, I grew a different mentality, but in my heart I stayed a corner. If I stayed a corner, when I was lined up on the Wes Welkers, the Calvin Johnsons, my mentality never switched. I was just a more physical corner now.
“That’s the biggest piece of advice I’d give, and also, get in that playbook. Now you have to know, if that three-technique is stunting to the ‘B’ or the ‘A’ gap, this hole may open up. If they pull, you’ve got to cancel out a gap. That’s a totally different vocabulary than what we learned out there on the island. It’s very basic. There’s not too much you need to know out there on an island. But once you come into that core, you have to know what you’re doing.”
Q: I see your Cardinals jersey hanging up behind you there. Do you keep up with the team? Your group had success, and then they had success with Bruce Arians, but there have been struggles in recent years.
Antrel Rolle: “I’ll watch them sporadically, and I think what’s going on with the Cardinals is that they have yet to find their identity. When I got drafted to the Cardinals, the first year we went like 4-12 or something. It was bad, but you could see the growth coming. You saw guys who really wanted it. One of the guys I really looked up to on the defensive side of the ball was Darnell Dockett. He was a workaholic. It got to the point where I was in the weight room with him every single Friday, and I was literally lifting weights with him (a defensive end). They wanted it.
“Larry Fitzgerald was probably the hardest-working guy I’ve ever seen on the offensive side of the ball. Getting paid wasn’t enough. These guys wanted to change the culture. You’d see Anquan Boldin out there practicing and playing like a complete dog, and you had to keep up, or you’d get shipped out.
“I think that’s what they’re missing right now in Arizona, those leaders who are looking to really set the foundation. Nowadays these guys get paid a lot of money, man. It has to be more than the money. Once you get those guys on the same page, that’s when you’re going to see things shift in a different direction, and I think that’s what they’re having a big issue with.”
Q: What do you think of Budda Baker, and the way he plays so fearlessly despite his size?
Antrel Rolle: “Budda Baker is a flying missile. He’s careless about his body, but it’s not even so much that he’s careless about his body. His heart is just that big, and he’s such a good player, that he fears no one. And it shows. Guys like that are the ones you want on your team. He’s one of the best pickups by the team in the past 10 years, absolutely.”
Q: Have you watched Kyler Murray? What do you think of him?
Antrel Rolle: “Game-planning against him would be an absolute nightmare. I would hate to do it. I mean, how many spies can you put on this guy? And he’s not one-dimensional. He can light you up with his arm as well. He’s such a dynamic and explosive player, and it’s consistency that we’re all looking for more from him. It will elevate his game to another level. But he’s a dynamic player, a dangerous player. When you’ve got a guy like that who can kill you with both his arm and legs, watch out.”
Q: You mentioned Larry Fitzgerald earlier, who was drafted the year before you by Arizona. What was it like having a front row seat as he elevated to one of the greatest receivers of all-time?
Antrel Rolle: “Some guys have it naturally. Some guys have to work extremely hard to get there. He was a guy who possessed both. He had a natural gift – natural timing for the ball, natural elevation. But his work ethic was absolutely incredible. It’s nothing I’d ever witnessed up-close in person.
“I worked out with him a couple times in the offseason in Minnesota. He literally worked me to complete exhaustion. It was like, ‘Damn, bro, please stop.’ But now it makes sense. He would catch the ball at the 5-yard-line and run it 95 yards to the end zone. In practice. On every single rep. OK, now it makes sense. It takes guys like that to change the culture. Not because of what he did on Sundays, but what he did on Tuesdays leading up through Sunday.”
Q: You were on the Super Bowl team together, and the next year you guys made the playoffs again. Kurt Warner then retired, so maybe that changed the calculus, but looking back at it, are you surprised they disbanded that core group after two years of nice success?
Antrel Rolle: “You’d think that would be a priority. You had guys like myself, Karlos Dansby, Anquan Boldin. Those are three of your studs. How can you let them walk out the building? When you see things like that happen, it makes you question the organization: Do these guys really want to win? Was getting to the Super Bowl enough? For me, that’s never enough. All that did was leave a bitter taste in my mouth. I was itching to get another one.
“I don’t think that was the case, but it does make you wonder. How do you not keep three guys that contributed so much to the team, and was a huge part of your success? How do you not do everything to keep those guys in the building? And it showed.”
Q: Did you have that conversation with the organization? Did they explain why they were letting some of you guys leave?
Antrel Rolle: “Well I had an incentive in my contract that boosted my salary up to like $17 million for the last year. At that point in time, no safety was getting that type of money, so I knew I was going to hit free agency. After they released me, they called me immediately trying to sign me back. We already knew that was going to be part of the plan.
“But to be honest with you, I had some mixed feelings about a couple things. Coach Ken Whisenhunt, not a bad dude at all. I appreciated him as a coach and have nothing bad to say about him. But my third year when I was demoted and put to second team, I felt like he came in and brought his guys he wanted to play. That rubbed me the wrong way, and I never got over it.
“I said to myself: ‘I’m going to make him beg me one day.’ When I was demoted, you can ask anyone, I never gave any attitude. I put my head down and went to work. That ended up becoming one of the better seasons I had in the NFL. But I took it personal. I’m not going to lie. And for a guy like me, who wouldn’t take it personal? I knew who I was as a player, and I knew they weren’t playing me to my strengths.
“Some things to me just didn’t make sense, so signing back with them was a stretch. I don’t care what money they would have offered me. It was a stretch. It felt like it was time for me to take my talents somewhere else, a place with a different aura.”
Q: So then you went to New York. Could you feel the difference in the organizations?
Antrel Rolle: “Oh, like that (snaps fingers). ‘Oh, so this is what the NFL is like?’ No shade on the Cardinals, but you didn’t get that NFL love. We got it on Sundays because of the new stadium, the fans were rocking, the fans were awesome. You got it then. But outside of that, we didn’t get the love. It felt like we were a forgotten team. When I got to New York, man, you’d have to be careful sneezing or it could get headlines.
“And you felt it within the organization. Ownership was different. (John Mara) loved it, lived it, adored it. It wasn’t a money thing. It really mattered to them. I’m not saying it was necessarily like that with the Cardinals, but I wouldn’t know, because I didn’t have any close interactions with (the Bidwills). Just hi and bye, things of that nature.
“But you could just tell. The equipment, the locker room, the facilities, the meal prep. Everything was different from top to bottom. It was eye-opening, and it was appreciated. I really appreciated that (in New York).”
Q: The Giants are going through a rougher patch now, trying to figure out the quarterback situation. Since you mentioned all the things they have going for them, do you feel like the structure is there once they can figure out the quarterback spot?
Antrel Rolle: “Listen, I love my Giants. I just felt like there were some bad moves along the way, man. GM moves. They got rid of some guys and paid some guys where it didn’t make sense to me. The film doesn’t lie. I understood Saquon had injuries, but if you had gotten Saquon more help, he would have been who Philly experienced this year. Maybe not to that extent because we know how dominant the offensive line is there, but I just felt like there were a lot of bad moves made that really didn’t make any sense.
“With that being said, they are trying to get back into the right direction. They drafted the stud they drafted this year (Jaxson Dart). He’s going to be a helluva player. That goes without saying. You have Nabers, who’s been playing out of his mind. Russell Wilson can distribute the ball. How good will Russ be? That’s to be determined. But we haven’t seen a huge decline in Russell Wilson.
“But I feel like Nabers needs more help, and you can use more help in the backfield. Those will be the key focal points to turn the organization back around.”
Q: Your former teammates Odell Beckham and Jason Pierre-Paul have both talked about rejoining the Giants here in the twilight of their careers. Would that make sense for the team?
Antrel Rolle: ‘I’d love to see it, but that’s me being biased because those are my boys. I’d love to see them go out on their own terms at MetLife Stadium. Obviously we know Odell’s had a lot of injuries, but I still think Odell has a lot left in the tank. I just don’t feel like he’s been used properly. The last time we saw that was when he was with L.A.
“We have yet to see him used like that since then. If he’s healthy, I’d still say OBJ, with his route-running and the way he can separate in and out of breaks, he can be a top-15 receiver in the game today. If he’s targeted correctly.
“And JPP is just an absolute freak. I would love to see both my guys go out on their own terms in MetLife Stadium. That would be dope.”
Q: Could Odell be a mentor to Malik Nabers at this stage of his career?
Antrel Rolle: “Oh, absolutely it would be helpful. One of my mentors, Deon Grant, taught me so much on and off the field. You can’t put a price on those things. He was such a pivotal part for us in that (2012) Super Bowl run, and a lot of times it was behind closed doors. The only people that knew were the players. No coaches, no media, none of that. Those things are such hidden gifts.”
Q: Do you think Eli Manning is going to make the Hall of Fame, and if you had a vote, would you put him in?
Antrel Rolle: “Do I think he will get in? Yes, I do. And I think he deserves to get in. And it’s not just because of the name, or because he played in New York. You’re talking about someone who had a very good NFL career, postseason we know what he did. Two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback, and the guy (Tom Brady) who he beat in both Super Bowls. That stuff speaks for itself, and it doesn’t happen by accident. Eli, to me, is clutch. He gets my vote 200% of the time. And this is not me being biased. He is the real deal at quarterback, and I’m hoping he gets his flowers. I know he will. He deserves it.”
Q: You were only in Chicago for one year, but I wanted to ask you about Jaquan Brisker. After three concussions, can he change his play-style mid-career, or is it too instinctual of a position?
Antrel Rolle: “The hardest thing to do is break habits. If you’ve been playing a certain way your whole life, that’s hard to break. Can you alter it, yeah, but would that have an effect on your game? Absolutely that would. Now you’re not being and playing as your 100% authentic self.
“Concussions are a serious deal we have to worry about, and in his case, I’m not quite sure you can prevent that. I think I had two. One time I jumped up for a ball, came down the wrong way and hit the back of my head. The next time, I was going to tackle Reggie Bush, and when I went to make the tackle, his knee hit the side of my temple. Those were my two concussions, and I don’t think I could have prevented either one of those. So altering his game, I don’t think that’s a realistic thing. You just have to go and play ball, man. The rest you leave up to God.”
Q: Before the interview I was looking up those rosters at Miami, and man those teams were stacked. Does that 2001 national championship team have an argument as the best collection of talent on one team?
Antrel Rolle: “What’s the argument?”
Q: Well Alabama’s had some pretty good teams. It’s case closed, huh?
Antrel Rolle: “I don’t think it was ever open. If anyone knows football and really understands football, it’s a no-brainer. You have LSU and Alabama, and those guys had some phenomenal teams, don’t get me wrong. But if we would have played those guys, it would have been a complete (smackdown). 100 percent.”
Q: Did you know it was special at the time?
Antrel Rolle: “No, and that’s the crazy thing, right? We were just in it. Every day for us was brutal. I can’t put the practices into words. The physicality, the mental part, the working out. When I think back now, it’s like, ‘How did I do that?’ The only reason you did is because you saw the guy next to you doing it. That’s how all of us thought. If we were out there on our own, I don’t think one person would have made it. But collectively, we did it for the guy next to us. Brotherhood was everything. Selfishness was nothing. That’s the way we looked at it. But I didn’t realize the crazy amount of talent we had on that team.”
Q: What are your favorite memories of Ed Reed and Sean Taylor from back then?
Antrel Rolle: “My favorite memory of Ed is that iconic speech during the FSU game. That’s when I knew I was at a different level. I’m like, ‘Man, we’re up 21-7 or something, why is he so angry?’ That wasn’t good enough. That’s the day I realized this was the standard. I never forgot that moment.
“Reed was a guy ahead of his time, mentally. He was very mature. When you spoke to Reed, you would have thought he was 30, not in his early 20s.”
“Sean, man, I have so many memories of that boy. Sean just wanted to be the best. It didn’t matter if it was tying shoelaces. Going into our senior year, we were training and running 40s. We had different sessions, where you had a 9 o’clock group, 10 o’clock group, 11 o’clock group. Well Sean came back to all three sessions to run the 40, just so he could get to a 4.3.
“We don’t know to this day if Sean ran a 4.3 or not. I know coach Swasey told him he ran a 4.3. But Swasey was just tired of seeing him. He probably ran the 40 nine or ten times that day. Running the 40 two times is exhausting, because of everything you put into it. And I believe that boy ran the 40 nine or ten times. So Swasey just yelled, ‘4.3!’ and we’ll never know if he ran a 4.3 or not. But that was Sean. If he had something in his mind, he wanted to achieve it. That’s the best player I’ve ever played with. He was the ultimate teammate. The best teammate I’ve ever had. We were in sync like no other.”
Q: Miami has been up and down since your heyday. Cam Ward had them rolling last year. Do you like the trajectory of the program, or do you worry about Ward’s departure?
Antrel Rolle: “I liked the way it was going somewhat, but do I think they can sustain that? It’s going to be very hard, because Cam did a lot. He did more than I’ve ever seen anyone do in one year. With the amount of talent we still have here in Miami, keeping the talent here would help them a lot, and a lot of time we see the talent go elsewhere. Case in point: How do you let Jeremiah Smith get out of your backyard? Damn. That dude is special. Those are the guys you need to keep from your backyard in order to get back to greatness.”
Q: Does NIL complicate it? If another team offers more money, is there less allegiance to staying in Miami?
Antrel Rolle: “With the way things are now, it’s definitely harder. These guys are making so much money in these NIL deals, and it has to be in the conversation. And they are well within that right. If I was playing at this time, I’d look at it the same way. I can ball anywhere. Where will I get the most money? I don’t blame these guys. Make your money. So it does make it extremely hard, because that is a real thing in today’s game.”
Q: As Cam heads to the NFL, do you think he can be an impact guy as a rookie with the Titans?
Antrel Rolle: “I think Cam will be a great player. There’s only one knock I had on Cam watching him this year. The knock wasn’t at the collegiate level, but looking toward the future and his NFL career. He will have to get rid of that ball a lot faster. Everything else he did was phenomenal. It wasn’t a negative in college, because he had the time. And the way the corners play in college is different. He will have to get rid of the ball faster in the NFL, because the film study is so sharp. If you hold that ball for an extra millisecond, it will determine, a pass breakup, an interception or a completion.”
Q: Do you have a sense if he can naturally speed up that internal clock?
Antrel Rolle: “Absolutely. It will be an adjustment for him – but only if he doesn’t already have it. He did it in college because he could do it. I think that guy is a phenomenal talent, and I think he’s going to take the NFL world by storm. I think he’s going to light it up. Will it be Year 1? That’s hard. But I think he is going to have a very successful NFL career. He’s such a humble and down to earth kid, and football is what he wants to do. He wants to be the best. When you’re humble and a good person, it tends to work out for you.”
Q: Meesh Powell had some nice production last year with five picks for Miami. He ran a little slower, went undrafted and is now moving to safety with the Vikings. Do you think he can stick in the NFL?
Antrel Rolle: “Talent-wise, I think he definitely possesses enough of it to make the NFL. It’s going to be more about the numbers. When you go undrafted, you have to really be a standout guy in the OTAs and minicamps, or on special teams. You have to grasp the attention of the guys that matter. The DC, the position coach, the head coach. He has to do something to stand out, because being an undrafted free agent is extremely hard, especially in today’s game.”
Q: Is it another layer of difficulty moving from cornerback to safety as he also adapts to the NFL?
Antrel Rolle: “For him, if he ran a 4.6 or 4.7, in that range, then the switch will be beneficial for him. He will have to sharpen up his instincts, his film study, because that’s what will set him apart. Being on an island and running a 4.6 or 4.7 in today’s game, that might not go so well. I think the transition to safety will help him. You need a quick twitch at safety. You don’t need to be a blazer. You can use film study to put yourself in the right positions, and to cancel out certain plays that you know aren’t coming.”
Kyle Odegard has been a professional journalist for two decades, with four years of experience in the sports betting industry. He was a beat writer for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals from 2013-2021 and previously covered MLB, NFL, NBA, college football and more for the East Valley Tribune newspaper in Tempe, Arizona. Kyle has broken multiple national stories about the Arizona Cardinals and his work has been referenced by numerous publications, including Sports Illustrated, the Daily Mail, the New York Post, Yahoo!, FOX News, MSN and Pro Football Talk.